Holding Islam to Account

Never in American history has the gap been greater between the experience of ordinary Americans and the picture of the world drawn by the intellectual elite. Hollywood has not distributed a film about Muslim terrorists for a generation. The major media go out of their way to portray Islam favorably. But when a line is drawn in the sand over a public gesture to Islam, we find a seven to three margin against.

We should conclude from this exercise that America remains a Christian nation in marrow and bone, despite the atheism of its intellectual elite (only a fifth of professors at elite American universities say they believe in God, compared with about nine-tenths of the general population). [4]

Most Americans do not confuse a God of love with whatever radical Muslims might worship. Former president George W Bush told them that Islam was "a religion of peace", and Obama adds that Muslims "excel in every walk of life" (Americans can't think of an example, excluding the stray convert among African-American athletes).

What Americans observe, though, is that Islam has produced a large number of individuals enraged enough to kill themselves in order to murder Americans as well as each other. Most Muslims, to be sure, are peaceable folk who want nothing better than to live their own lives undisturbed. But every religion must take ownership of a visible minority that favors violence, and the American public can to some extend be excused for holding Islam to account.

Never in American history has the gap been greater between the experience of ordinary Americans and the picture of the world drawn by the intellectual elite. Hollywood has not distributed a film about Muslim terrorists for a generation. The major media go out of their way to portray Islam favorably. But when a line is drawn in the sand over a public gesture to Islam, we find a seven to three margin against.

We should conclude from this exercise that America remains a Christian nation in marrow and bone, despite the atheism of its intellectual elite (only a fifth of professors at elite American universities say they believe in God, compared with about nine-tenths of the general population). [4]

Most Americans do not confuse a God of love with whatever radical Muslims might worship. Former president George W Bush told them that Islam was "a religion of peace", and Obama adds that Muslims "excel in every walk of life" (Americans can't think of an example, excluding the stray convert among African-American athletes).

What Americans observe, though, is that Islam has produced a large number of individuals enraged enough to kill themselves in order to murder Americans as well as each other. Most Muslims, to be sure, are peaceable folk who want nothing better than to live their own lives undisturbed. But every religion must take ownership of a visible minority that favors violence, and the American public can to some extend be excused for holding Islam to account.